Racing and pacing!

Friday, 3rd May 2013 – 11.8km Easy Run (5:19/km)
A very easy run again today in advance of another 5km parkrun and then the Limerick marathon pacing gig on Sunday. Not much else to report. 

Saturday, 4th May 2013 – 10.0km Malahide Parkrun 
2.4km Warm Up
5.0km Malahide Parkrun 
2.6km Cool Down
Another Saturday another Parkrun!
I parked in the usual car park and jogged the 2.5km to the start line as a warm-up. A few minutes later and we were away. This week I wanted to make sure I’d go out a bit easier and hope that I’d have more in the tank to finish strongly. The first couple of kms were in approx 4:05/km which set me up nicely. I was feeling good and strong as we turned onto the second lap through the trees. Around here the pace dropped on the garmin but I knew from previous experiences that the tree coverage was responsible for this so I just ignored it from there on home and ran by effort and off those around me also. My tactics appeared to be working over the last couple of kms as I was still feeling strong but by the time I crossed the finish line I was still about 5 seconds down on my last time here. My conservatism at the start meant that I failed to bank the extra 15 seconds or so that I’d usually have by halfway and so struggled to make the time back over the course of the run. Probably more importantly, I think I need to work on my leg turnover speed and therefore need to introduce intervals at quicker than 5km pace sometime over the next week or two. 

Sunday, 5th May 2013 – 42.3km Limerick Marathon
I joined Frank and Niall for a car-pool trip to Limerick on Sat afternoon driven by my fellow 4h30m pacer Eamonn. We popped into the expo en route to the hotel and then later in the evening we went for a bit of grub with a few other boardsies before joining an even bigger group of boardsie pacers for a couple of beers before heading home. 


Up early the next day for the brekkie before onwards to the pre-race briefing by Tom. A quick stroll to the line and met a few more people I knew including Pat O’Keeffe who was running his 100th marathon today. 

After another while we were away, shortly after 9am. Myself and Eamonn had a group of about 20 people at the start. A quick mini loop of the city centre and we were then on our way to UL. Just after this there was a section of ‘out & back’ where we met the runners from 3:15 pace onwards. This was a good section for spotting people we knew and helped us forget about the road in front. As we were returning along this section we met the 5hr pacers – Anto & Barry – who appeared very lonely with only a couple of people for company. Having done the 5hr gig in DCM last year I knew how they felt.

Pacer's synchronised jump at the 20 mile 
mark (photographer missed Eamo though!).

Not long before we returned to the city centre I ran ahead and took a video of the group we were pacing. From here on people started dropping off the pace at the rate of about one person per km. We passed through the halfway mark about 60 seconds up on goal pace and with about 12-15 people now remaining in our group. I could hear people were beginning to breathe a lot more deeply and could tell that some were plainly not going to last the whole race at this pace. 

For most of the remaining miles myself and Eamonn did our best to cajole a few people we passed into running with us and keeping the few long-term pacees motoring. Eventually we managed to cross the finish line with about 7 or 8 people to get them under the 4:30 mark. One or two in particular put in a real shift to even just get to the finish so more respect to them!

A few beers later in the evening made for a very enjoyable marathon weekend in Limerick. I'd definitely be on for pacing it again next year, well that's if I'm not racing it instead! 

Week 17 Summary:
RTW: 7 from 7 days
DTW: 113.9km
DTY: 1,544.0km